I was watching Diarmaid Maccullough’s Christian History documentary, in which he said that early Methodists had a very methodical way of going about their salvation–prayer, Bible reading, fasting, spiritual reading, and reading Scripture in the original languages–and so were called Methodists in mockery, a name which stuck.

I thought of other insults, which through the decades have been adopted as self-definitions, and later became compliments–Impressionists, Pre-Raphaelites, Fauvists (wild beasts!), Quakers, Shakers, Dominicans (from Domini Cannes, God’s dogs, because of their role in the Inquisition).

Gothic, for wild, rude and barbaric was a term used for that noble architecture by Giorgio Vasari.

The term “Prime Minister” was initially ironic!

Don’t be afraid of insults or criticism. Go on doing what you are doing, create the taste by which you are to be enjoyed, and if your work is any good, the insults will turn to compliments.

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